If you want to work in biopharma but only have a bachelor’s or master’s degree, there are still plenty of options available. To help, here are five job options in biopharma that don’t require a Ph.D.
Many professionals beginning their job search think that a Ph.D. is required to work in a biopharmaceutical company. Though that is true for some roles, there are still plenty of job options for people with bachelor’s or master’s degrees in biopharma.
If you want to work in biopharma but only have a bachelor’s or master’s degree, there are still plenty of options available. To help, here are five job options in biopharma that only require a bachelor’s degree.
BioSpace currently lists 3,721 biopharma jobs requiring only a bachelor’s degree. Let’s take a look at just a few of them.
Five Biopharma Jobs that Don’t Require a Ph.D.
1. Biomedical Policy Analyst (or Business Systems Analyst)
An analyst identifies technology business needs, analyzes current enterprise solutions, and aligns the data with an integrated business model. They help in staging and planning project phases, assist in monitoring milestones, and provide strategy and solutions for a mix of business and technology goals. Glassdoor indicates that the national average annual salary for Business Systems Analysts is $93,043.
Click here for Business Systems Analyst jobs available now.
2. Medical Affairs Specialist (or Regulatory Affairs Specialist).
The pharmaceutical industry is, as most people know, heavily regulated by the U.S. government and any other country’s government where they do business.
Individuals with an interest in this can find plenty of job opportunities in biopharma writing, managing and preparing regulatory filings and ensuring that the company keeps to required regulatory procedures. PayScale indicates the median annual pay for Medical Affairs Specialist is $72,636.
Click here for Regulatory Affairs Specialist jobs available now.
3. Biochemist
Biotech and pharmaceutical companies still hire plenty of people with bachelor’s and master’s degrees to work on the bench—to conduct assays, work with laboratory animals and perform experiments under the direction of Ph.D. and M.D. research leaders.
And biochemistry is only one area—any science degree, such as biology, chemistry, molecular biology, genetics, pharmacology, toxicology and immunology would apply.
These types of jobs vary quite a bit depending on whether the positions are in industry as opposed to academia, but the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that for pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing the annual mean salary is $102,270.
Click here to see Biochemist jobs available now.
4. Biomedical Engineer.
Biomedical engineers design any and all equipment and devices used in biopharma, including medical devices.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual pay for biomedical engineers is $97,410.
Click here to see Biomedical Engineer jobs available now.
5. Research Associate
There are a number of non-Ph.D. level research associates. They fall somewhere in between the research leader and a technician, being more actively involved in data analysis and experiment design. Glassdoor reports a national average annual salary of $63,754.
